The Thanatos Drive
by Dusk Dreaming
Summary: The Atlas Eva Station was built to protect Oceania from Angel attacks. New Evas are constructed with the latest technology and new children are recruited to pilot them. As Keyser is drafted into this war against his will, can he learn to pilot the Eva and become the saviour the world is looking for? Is the greatest threat to humanity the Angels, or something closer to home? AU.


This is a classified document. It is to be read by authorised personnel only. If you have received a copy of this document without authorisation, **do not read it or distribute it**. Destroy it immediately and alert a superior officer.

This report on "the Thanatos Incident" was compiled by Internal Affairs Division of the Atlas Eva Station, New Sydney, Oceania.

...

_Interview Transcript 1_

_Interviewee: Wei Yee Lin_

_Interviewer Code: A164  
_

_Begin Transcript  
_

Interviewer (IV): Mr Wei, you were the head of the Marduk Institute, Oceania Branch, when it made its recommendation regarding the Seventeenth Child. Is that correct?

Wei: This is a farce. You have no right to hold me. Where is your jurisdiction? From what do you derive your authority?

_[The following portion of the transcript has been redacted.]_

IV: Now, will you co-operate? I asked if you were head of Marduk Oceania when it made its recommendation regarding the Seventeenth Child.

Wei: Yes, that's correct.

IV: And the circumstances of this selection were unusual, weren't they?

Wei: They were.

IV: Could you explain how?

Wei: Previously, all of the Children had been selected from a pre-screened cohort in Tokyo 3. That was NERV's doing. The Marduk Institute was in NERV's control the whole time.

IV: But the Committee were not happy with this state of affairs.

Wei: No. They were trying to regain control of Marduk. And they succeeded when the Delocalization Event happened. It gave them the pretext they needed to take away some of Ikari's power.

IV: You are referring to Gendo Ikari, the former Commander of NERV?

Wei: Who else? Is there another?

IV: His son is also a person of interest to our investigation.

Wei: The son and the father are one.

IV: Could you explain what you mean by "Delocalization Event" in layman's terms?

Wei: The… the Angels were drawn to the Black Moon in Tokyo 3. The Committee accepted that we would have to direct most of our resources to Tokyo 3 to resist the Angels' assault. Ikari took advantage of the situation to further his own agenda.

IV: But now the Angels have changed targets?

Wei: We don't… we don't know how or why. But after the Human Instrumentality Project, everything changed.

IV: There were no more Angels for a long time. Many thought the crisis was over.

Wei: It was just beginning.

IV: You have not explained the Delocalization Event.

Wei: We don't know what the Angels are looking for. Prior to Instrumentality, they appeared to be drawn to the Black Moon. But now the Angels have appeared in several locations around the world and attacked seemingly random targets. The Moons are no longer of interest to them. The most widely accepted theory is that some sort of Delocalization has occurred – that is, whatever the Angels are looking for, it has been dispersed around the world. We can no longer predict their targets.

IV: What could the Angels be looking for?

Wei: If I knew the answer to that, the world's problems would be over.

IV: Obviously, no one knows for sure. But in your opinion, what is the most plausible theory? What do you think?

Wei: What do I think? I think… I think the Angels are individual organisms. I think it's impossible to generalise about what they want. We have no evidence that they share a common goal. Asking what the Angels want may be like asking what humans want – there may be a different answer for each individual.

IV: You say the Angels are individuals. But they have all attacked Earth. Isn't that evidence of a common goal?

Wei: We live on Earth, so the only Angels we encounter are the ones that visit Earth. There may be Angels visiting other planets, other solar systems, other galaxies, doing all kinds of things beyond our imagination, and we would have no idea.

IV: Why would every Angel that comes to Earth try to destroy it, if they were not acting as part of a directed plan?

Wei: Humans are individuals, but we share common instincts. The strongest and most primitive is self-preservation. We will do anything to survive, even destroy other species. It may be that the Angels are trying to destroy us for the same reason that we are trying to destroy them – they see us as a threat to their existence.

...

**Chapter One:**

_In the Beginning_

Under the hot summer sun, the city of New Sydney sleeps. The air ripples with lazy afternoon heat as cars rush back and forth beneath the brown stained sky. Shining buildings of glass and concrete rear up to the heavens in defiance of gravity, as if to declare Man's intentions to own the universe. Humanity is thriving.

But pride comes before a fall.

Without warning, a second sun appears on the horizon. It triples in size once, twice, before descending and smashing into the ground, sending out a cloud of fire and dust that blankets the air.

Mournful sirens begin to wail and a recorded voice blares from everywhere, echoing through the concrete warren: _"Danger. Angel attack. Evacuate to the nearest shelter immediately. Danger. Angel attack. Evacuate to the nearest shelter immediately. "_ Panic takes hold, cars swerving and racing away from the impact site, their horns blaring at maximum volume. The crowd disperses like so many ants, their cries of alarm feeble as the squeaking of mice.

Before the cloud of dust has fully subsided, the Angel rises.

...

Keyser sat motionless in the empty carriage as the landscape flashed past the windows, his fingers curled tightly around the handle of his travel bag. Gently, he rubbed the handle with the tip of his thumb. Its simple solidity reassured him. His life was changing so quickly that he wasn't really certain of anything any more. He had to start with the simple things. Like: I am holding a bag in my right hand.

The bag was filled with his clothes, toiletries and personal possessions. It was the only connection to the life he was leaving behind. He couldn't really say he'd been _happy _with his life – happiness was an emotion he hadn't felt in a long time – but he'd been content.

And then the government had passed the fucking Emergency Draft Act.

Unjustifiable infringement of civil liberties. That's what people were calling it. Keyser knew about the controversy because read the news when he was bored of playing games and jerking off to porn. People were saying the government had given too much power to the military. Keyser agreed with them, not because he had any well developed political opinions, but because he didn't like people telling him what to do, especially not army dickheads who were only in the military because they were too stupid to get a proper job. He didn't like the government telling him what to do either, but they had always left him alone before, and besides, the government was democratic and you could argue with them. They military would force you to do things because they had guns.

And Evas.

That was the problem. The fucking Evas and the fucking Angels. The whole world was going to hell in a handbasket. Keyser didn't know what a handbasket was, but the expression sounded appropriate.

He had to admit, when the first Angels had attacked after Instrumentality, he'd been excited in a perverse way. He knew it was wrong to feel like that. Thousands of people had died and millions of dollars of destruction had been caused in the first attack alone. But still he'd been excited, because something was happening, something that caught up the whole world. He'd felt real emotion for the first time in a long time.

Before the Angels had come, he'd just been dead inside. Life was utterly dull and boring. He ate, slept, spent his time online, and dreamed of fantasy worlds in which interesting things happened to people like him. There was nothing for him in the real world. Nothing to do with his life, no one who cared about him, nothing to make him feel anything, nothing to keep his interest. All the problems facing the world had been solved by the great minds of the past, dead old people in science textbooks. The human race's struggle for survival was finished. There was nothing left to do. Sure there were people starving and dying of diseases, and wars going on in some parts of the world, but that didn't affect him, so he didn't care.

And then the Angels had come, and suddenly everyone was part of this grand new adventure. The struggle for survival was back on. There was a new kind of tension, a nervous energy in the air, and Keyser had been excited.

He'd fantasised, of course, about defeating the Angels. Who hadn't? He'd make a new discovery, design and build a new kind of Eva, and smash the Angels single-handedly. Everyone would praise him. The world would shower him with gratitude, love and honour. He'd be magnanimous in victory.

But he'd never thought the dream would come true.

The fucking Emergency Draft Act. There had been a letter.

_The Marduk Institute (Oceania Branch) has selected your son, Keyser Rajan, for Evangelion Pilot Training. Under the Emergency Draft Act (2021) attendance of said training __**is **__**compulsory**__. _

Fantasy was one thing. Being up close and personal with an Angel was different. They had been studying the Angels for years and they still hadn't found a weakness. They said the Angels generated a special kind of energy that not even nukes could penetrate. Only the Evangelions could fight them.

They said that Evas were horrible machines created by desperate scientists. They said that Evas screwed up their pilots' minds, made them insane, completely fucked them up.

Keyser didn't want to go through that. He wished there was some other way, any other. The only reason he was on this train right now was that he didn't want the army to shoot him. They'd probably get away with it, too. The military could get away with anything these days.

He stared at the blank wall opposite as the countryside flashed past the window.

Hang on. Was it his imagination, or was the train slowing down? No, it really was.

He looked out the window and saw an approaching station. But why were they stopping? They weren't supposed to stop until they reached Central.

_Beep beep beep. Beep beep beep._

His phone rang, buzzing in his pocket. He slid it out and saw an unknown number on the screen. He accepted the call.

"Hello?" he said.

...

Nestled deep underground, the Atlas Eva Station still reeked of fresh paint and newly laid cement. In the central control room, Alan Zheng's fingers raced over the keyboard. He shook his head, snorted in frustration and resisted the urge to slam his fist against the console.

"Having fun?"

Captain Victor McCullough was not a small man, but he had the ability to move as silently as a cat when he wanted to. Now he slid into an empty chair beside Alan and leaned back, putting his hands behind his head.

"Haven't you got some kids to bully or refugees to shoot or something?" Alan muttered.

"Yeah, but I decided to take a break to check on my favourite computer nerd. How're things going? I thought you were supposed to be pretty good at this. Don't tell me you're losing your touch." Vic swivelled the chair from side to side like a bored child.

"_I'm _not the one with a problem_. _It's this bloody Akagi Magi system they're using. It's so… eccentric. Computers are supposed to be logical. This one has the personality of a pissed off woman."

Vic frowned. "I thought Magis were supposed to be the best computers in the world."

"They are in terms of speed, power, memory, problem solving, security and a hundred other measures. Dr Akagi, the creator of the original Magi, was an absolute genius, there's no denying that. But she transplanted her personality into the core programs, which makes life extremely difficult for the rest of us. The Magi have a mind of their own and layers of complexity that we're just barely beginning to understand. Probably no one will ever be able to design a system like it. No one can produce a system to rival the Magi because Akagi kept her methods secret."

"Can't you take it apart to find out how it works?"

"Nope. That's part of the problem. There've been a couple of attempts to reverse engineer the Magi system, but the Magi won't let anyone into their program files. If they work out you're trying to hack them, they immediately delete themselves, and sometimes they do something terrible to you first. The Magi in Stockholm initiated a self-destruct of the entire facility they were housed in."

Vic let out a low whistle.

"Shit. That sounds dangerous. I didn't know about all that stuff. Why're we using the Magi if they're so unpredictable?"

"You didn't know about it because it's classified information. I'd be obliged if you didn't share it with anyone. As for why we're using them... why use an unpredictable, dangerous tool that could destroy us as easily as it destroys the enemy?" Alan shot Victor a sharp look. "You should know the answer to that question. Your people are the ones who commissioned the Evas."

Vic gave Alan an offended look.

"Don't go blaming me for what the entire army does! I didn't make the decision. You're really upset about the Evas, aren't you? You don't want them here in Oz, right? Why is that?"

Alan made a contemptuous noise. "Because unlike you, I actually have some idea of what they are. You army idiots… " He trailed off, shaking his head. "You never understand the science behind the weapons you use. Or their socio-political implications. It was the same with the atom bomb."

Vic leaned closer to Alan.

"Is it true the Evas are based on Angels?" he said in a low voice.

Alan pulled away, turned back to the console and began typing furiously. "I don't know anything about the Evas," he said abruptly. "And even if I did know anything, I wouldn't tell you. Because I want to have a job and a good reference at the end of this, assuming I make it out alive."

"Come on, Alan," Vic said with a grin, putting a hand on Alan's shoulder. "'Course you'll make it alive. I'll look after you."

Alan shrugged him off. "I've got work to do. I'm not in the mood for mucking around. Go and play somewhere else."

"Look, I'm not any happier about the Evas than you are. But we have to use them. They're the only thing that works against the Angels. And now the Angels are targeting us, for whatever reason, so we have to do whatever it takes to stop them. "

"I know," Alan said wearily. "Which is exactly why we're using the Magi. Desperate times call for desperate measures."

For a minute there was no sound but the tapping of Alan's fingers on the keys. Then he spoke, as if a thought had just occurred to him.

"Speaking of which, aren't you supposed to be meeting the Seventeenth Child today?"

"Yeah."

"What's his name?"

"As if you don't know. You must have seen the Marduk Institute's report."

"That file is strictly confidential."

"Exactly."

Alan raised an eyebrow. "In future, bear in mind that this entire facility is under surveillance," he said. "It's best not to talk about anything you wouldn't want on record. But yes, as it happens, I know the child is called Keyser Rajan. 17 years old. Good school grades. High IQ. Mother died of breast cancer. Father a doctor. Born and raised in the peninsula for the first seven years of his life. Moved to New Sydney and lived there until 14 when his mother died, and his father took him out to the coast."

Vic nodded.

"That's pretty much everything I know, too."

"How is he getting here?"

"He's catching a train into New Sydney. He should be arriving at Central Station in about 20 minutes. A military escort will meet him and bring him in."

"Aren't you going to be there? I thought you would be the one to bring him in."

"Why should I? It's not my job to babysit kids."

"These _kids_ are extremely valuable. They're the best weapons we have against the Angels."

"Well, when you put it like that… hey, why are all the Evangelion pilots so young, anyway?" McCullough's voice became low once again. "Bringing in random kids from out of nowhere, with no military background… there's some hidden agenda here."

"Welcome to life. There's always a hidden agenda."

_Beep. Beep. Beep. _

Without warning, a low, nasal alarm began to bleat, echoing through the metal corridors of the station. Red warning displays appeared on the screens and flashed insistently.

"What's going on?" Victor said urgently.

Alan's fingers rattled off a series of staccato keystrokes. "Unidentified object in N21!"

"Holy shit! It's not – it can't be - "

"The spectral analysis is running now."

There were twenty seconds of tense silence, in which neither man moved a muscle.

Then Alan spoke. "Pattern blue," he breathed. "AT field."

"Shit! Did you say it's in N21?"

"At the moment. It's moving, though."

"It's heading for the Seventeenth Child!"

Victor whirled and raced away from the console, his footsteps ringing against the floor. As he ran, he pulled out his phone.

...

"Hello?"

"Is that Keyser? Keyser Rajan?" On the other end of the line was a man's voice, raised in a shout.

"Yeah," Keyser replied.

"Where are you?" the man demanded. It sounded like he was running.

"On a train."

"Has it stopped?"

"It's stopping now. I'm not at Central, though."

"Where are you? What's the name of the station? Quick!"

"Uh. Hang on."

Keyser moved to the window and pressed close to the glass, peering out to the right and left. The platform was smooth and grey, set with dark blue benches. On one of the benches was a name: Strathfield.

"Uh, hello?" he said into the phone.

"Yes?"

"I think I'm at… Strathfield?"

"Strathfield? Got it. You stay there, Keyser, I'll be there as soon as I can. Don't leave the station, don't move around, don't stay out in the open. Get off the train and head down into the station right now. You need to get a roof above your head."

Keyser's brow wrinkled. "What? What's going on?" he said.

The voice on the other side became clipped. "An Angel appeared. It's by the harbour now, but it might be moving in your direction. We can't afford to take any chances. We don't know what it's after, but there's a good chance it's after you, so keep yourself safe. Head down into the station now, get a roof over your head and stay there."

...

* * *

**A/N: **This story will mostly focus on Scifi/action/adventure themes rather than romance. However, the main character is a gay male, and some exploration of the Eva pilots' thoughts and feelings, including their sexuality, will occur. If you're uncomfortable with this you should read something else. I mention this because I hate getting reviews like, "hey I liked your story and I was gonna read it but I hate all the gay faggot shit, so too bad you lost a reader." Please think before you write. Your words have the power to hurt people who live with discrimination.

I believe it's important to put minority characters in my stories. I would rather lose some narrow-minded readers than compromise my principles. I would rather have one tolerant person reading my story than 500 homophobic readers.

Also this is an AU so I may reinterpret and put my own spin on some Evangelion concepts. I've only watched the original series and The End of Evangelion, none of the Rebuilds, so I won't include references to any of the spinoffs.


End file.
